HORIST: Bomb issue brings out the worst in the left

It has been my long-held practice not to associate those who commit political violence with the legitimate political forces in our society. Dangerous nut cases affix themselves to all sides of the multiple partisan divides. They range from common criminals – such as the vandals, looters and arsonists we see in those all too frequent riots – to the truly psychotic – as seen in the shooting of the Republican congressmen a little more than one year ago.

It is too easy to use the overheated political rhetoric of our times to blame the proverbial ”other side” for partisan advantage – whether it is the bellicosity of President Trump or the calls for physical confrontation by Congresswoman Maxine Waters. Neither of these people – or even those who say worse on social media – is to blame for criminal acts of violence. That threshold can only be crossed by the perpetrators of violence, themselves.

Whether these perpetrators take misguided solace or encouragement from what they hear or see in society, their actions are of their own making. The Unabomber claimed to be fighting against alleged industrial polluters so often vilified by anti-corporate left-wing politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren. The man who attempted to kill a group of Republican congressmen was a staunch supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders – and it occurred at a time when MSNBC and CNN were excoriating congressional Republicans as hateful people who are wreaking havoc on seniors, the infirmed and women. Does that make Warren, Sanders and the left-wing media complicit in those acts of violence?

(My mind’s ear hears a lot of people yelling “Hell yes, it does!” But no, it does not.)

We have to remember that violence is the malignant product of a disturbed mind. It does not really matter what the self-proclaimed objective might be. That is only the rationale … the excuse … the façade of justification. If there is a universal motivation it is more likely the need to overcome a sense of inferiority – of social impotence – and/or a need to draw even negative attention to their feeling of insignificance.

It is important that we keep in mind that the results of violence based on some policy or partisan grievance rarely, if ever, benefits the proclaimed political cause. More often than not, it provides a perverse opportunity for political benefit to the opposition side. While the media is viewing the perpetrator as some right-wing supporter of Trump, it is beyond refutation that the person has brought down maximum negative speculation on Trump and conservatives – even to the point that many predict it will impact on GOP fortunes in the upcoming midterm elections.

Though the distribution of the devices has obvious political overtones, we should not allow this crime to be politicized. That is why the response of the Democratic Party leadership – and especially their media mouthpieces – to the recent rash of bomb scares is so hypocritical, destructive and repulsive. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel – and one-time chief-of-staff for President Obama – famously said that his political party should “never waste a good crisis.” Today, we see that strategy being played out across the land, across our television screens and across the pages of the liberal press.

To understand what is so bad about the Democrat’s reaction, we need to address the words and actions of their targets – Trump, GOP leaders and the millions who call themselves Republicans.

Upon the first reports of mail bombs – real or fake – being sent to the most prominent Democrats in America – Trump issued a pitch-perfect response. He called for national unity against such acts of violence and terrorism and assured the nation that the full resources of the Executive Branch – which includes the FBI, Homeland Security and the Justice Department – will be unleashed to find and prosecute the perpetrator.

That statement has been noticeably missing or minimized by the Anti-Trump press. It has been replaced by Trump’s later off-the-cuff comments at an iconic rally in which he said that the news media shares responsibility for the hostile political climate. To maximize the negative political impact on Trump, virtually every report on CNN and MSNBC was taken out of context to make it seem more inflammatory that it was. In other cases, Trump’s comments were misrepresented (spun) without any video of his actual comments.

That characteristic left-wing bias against Trump was reflected in a commentary I wrote entitled “Please stop making me defend Trump.” I have been a constantly harsh critic of Trump’s pugnacious personality, but that gets offset by not only the mendacious and partisan attacks on Trump by the left-wing media but, by extension, the constant attacks on all those who support Trump policies. – people like me. Though the Democrats saw the error of referring to us as a “basket of deplorables,” they continue to slander us every day in that same spirit. Yes, the media has angered and enraged those of us who consider ourselves to be conservative Republicans – and they have been doing long before Trump announced his candidacy for President.

As one of the nameless targets of their broad-brush smear on conservative Republicans, I can attest to the fact that I have been outraged by the follow up reports on the bomb spree.

The media likes to absolve itself by simply declaring that Trump started all this. Their accusation has all the credibility of a witness to a barroom fight saying who started the brawl. I would say that Trump’s rhetoric — over-the-top as it is — has been more of a response to the longstanding left-wing bias of too much of the media and their exaggerated partisan attacks on Republicans and conservatives. For the left-wing media, Trump is merely the personification of the historical disdain much of the media has exhibited for Republicans and conservatives.

In terms of the press, the assault on all that is Trump began even when they determined him to be a hopeless and hapless candidate. One should recall how the Huffington Post announced that he would not even be covered as a political candidate, but the assignment would be given to their entertainment reporters.

No sooner do the Democrats pay lip service to the need to reduce the intensity of the rhetoric than they go on their own over-the-top screeds against Trump and Republicans. In response to Trump’s condemnation of violence and his call for unity, Senate and House leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi responded by tossing the olive branch into the fire of heated rhetoric. They totally dismissed Trump’s statement as “hollow,” and issued a statement that was more like a prosecutorial indictment – falsely blaming the bombs on Trump as if he had made them himself.

That Schumer/Pelosi statement opened the floodgate of similarly nasty accusatory language. CNN and MSNBC brought on their own panels of parroting pundits to repeat ad nausea the same anti-Trump, anti-Republican narratives. There were no counterpoints – no expressions of alternative viewpoints. Just one talking head after another trying to say the same thing in different words.

It did not matter that the Democrats were in the incongruous position of calling for calm and a return to civility even as they intensified their own partisan assaults – using their supposedly fair and balanced media as their most vicious political attack dogs. In the very first reports, the media pointed a crooked accusatory finger at Trump, Republican leaders and people like me. And then they wonder why conservatives get upset?

For many Americans – including any with a modicum of objectivity – the response of the media to the bomb scare tends to give credibility to Trump’s complaints and criticisms. He may be too brash in the use of provocative words, but his basic concern does have validity.

As a concerned citizen and a prominent civic leader, Larry Horist has investigated virtually all facets of urban racism. He has personally investigated ghetto housing, police brutality, criminal justice, inner city unemployment, black economic development and the failure of the public education system that serves the urban minority communities. In all his business, political and civic endeavors, he has opened leadership opportunities for minorities – often for the first time. He has seen both the fiction and reality of racism as the father of a black daughter for more than 40 years. He understands that pain of many black families, having lost a black Marine grandson in Afghanistan. His work has earned him a number of honors and awards from minority groups. His soon to be published book is a testament to his lifelong passion for equality and equal opportunity.

Comments 8

You are a film flak man just like him. He has no defense or excuse to justify his lies and deceptions he uses to further divided the citizens of this nation of which I am one. He is a film flam man that can’t be trusted. Your deffencive propaganda of his words and actions tell me your just like him and not worthy of giving an honest account of any facts our truth go support your deference of such in a man of a woman. Their is no deffence or excuse or Anyone else to blame but himself for his lying Nd wilful slander and false information he uses to undermine and destroy the credibility of the facts prevented and calls it fake news, never happened demanding that his follower accept his account as the only truth even when you have seen the facts and know what he is saying is a lie as he tries to distort the details and facts with his fake news to further wilfully divide us as a nation before our enemies.as if he was for them and against us the us citizen’s time and time again with not acts of loyalty to the US
Defend his lies and blame it on others and you become a copy of him with no truth in you, just another flim flam man for all to see

No matter what has or will be said by our President, he will be vilified by the socialist left political front. There are two reasons, I feel, for this. 1) they have produced nothing but hardship on productive people in our society, destroyed industry, thus employment abilities for those to help themselves and regulated our Nation’s ability to grow and prosper in the face of the Chinese growth. 2) they simply lost in 2026 when they were planning a coronation.

I’m afraid I must disagree “bombs” without a triggering device .. harmless powder in “suspicious “ packages.
Packages moved around by staffers and screeners after they were “suspect” . Sorry so many similar packages that doesn’t add up, even using the “new math”. It is a distraction pure and simple from the left.

ON 11/06/18 THE TRUMP MAGA CANDIDATES WILL HAVE ACHIEVED 2 YEARS OF ALL- AMERICAN SUCCESS AND FUTURE GOOD HOPE.
ALL AMERICANS HAVE BENEFITED FROM TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE TENURE.
THE “LEFT” ONLY SEEKS TO PUNISH THOSE WHO WERE BRASH AND BRAVE ENOUGH TO REJECT “CLINTONITIS”
WE’RE NOW BACK TO A 1776 SETTING, LET’S KEEP IT THAT WAY IN OUR 2018 MID-TERM VOTING

I suspect these packages were sent to those who advocate violence and “incivility” towards conservatives. They probably aren’t live, but until it is proven, it raises doubts and anxiety levels of the recipients. Maybe this situation is meant to give them taste of what it is like to live under the cloud of violence directed at them. In other words, karma.

I so agree. These were sent to the big mouths that are trying to stop Trump. Republicans are not the ones who are getting in people’s faces & screaming at them. It is these creeps. Maybe it will shut them up. I do not condone this behavior, but what do they expect when they are promoting violence. Madonna shouting about blowing up the White House. She should be arrested. I think we are just sick of Republicans getting blamed for everything. Maxine Waters should be kicked out of Congress. democrats are evil.

The left loves to talk about and attempt to digrace this President, only problem they have is Facts……they lack any and all, they come up with talking points everyday and I do mean everyday and yet none are based on truth and fact and none take hold and the left wonders why they can’t take this President down, because until you have truth based on Facts, the average American with half a brain can read between the lines and the Rhetoric the MSM and Left love to use and they will always see this for what it is….pure Bull Shit, the latest issue being these bombs, all be it extremely serious, have all the hall marks of another red herring, and until proved differently will be just that, and any attempt to put blame on this President once again is extremely hypocritical and misguided and will do nothing more than to shine a huge ass spotlight on the MSM and the Lefts true agenda of hate not only torwds this President but any who follow him or see things differently!

Not all Democrats are evil and not all Republicans are evil, not all leftists are evil and not all conservatives are evil. These kind of remarks are inflammatory. We live in a free Republic and we have a right to vote and support those whose policies agree with ours. We are foolish to continue all this hate talk and all this partisan devicive political bantering. We need to grow up and act like adults. If you win, you are a winner and you get the prize. If you loose, oh well, try next time. The prize is, after all, a limited term. So, if your full of hate and division, pipe it and keep it to yourself.